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September 17, 2011
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Final Cut Pro TutorialsFinal Cut Pro XVideo Editing

FCPX Bug? Best Practices for Using External Hard Drives with Final Cut Pro X

Many FCPX users are experiencing troubles when attempting to use external hard drives in Final Cut Pro X.  Apple’s Time Machine backups may be the cause of this problem.

As we’ve discussed in great length here on the blog, Apple has some definite kinks to work out of Final Cut Pro X.  Version 1.0 applications are not without their bugs..and this one seems to be effecting a large number of FCPX users.

Many editors have noted that when they launch FCPX their external drive(s) will appear in the Events Library or Project Library and then quickly disappear.

Obviously, it’s imperative that you can store projects and media on external devices for use in Final Cut Pro X.  So, here’s the scoop for getting your external drive to “play well” with FCPX….

For many users it appears the issue has to do with using the same drive for storing media as they do for Time Machine backups (Apple’s computer backup solution).  You cannot have time machine backups on your hard drive if you intend to use it in FCPX. For whatever reason, FCPX seems to be ignoring drives that have Time Machine backup archives on them.  If you’re experiencing this issue it may be as simple as trashing the backups and trying again, however others have reported the need to reformat or simply get a new drive.

FCPX power user Andy Nick offered up some other suggestions over on the Apple discussion forums that may also increase your success of using hard drives in FCPX:

  • The drive you use for events and projects must be formatted either ‘Mac OS Extended’, or ‘Mac OS Extended (journaled)’. You can modify the formatting of your disc through the Disk Utility application (included on all Macs).
  • Your drive should be Firewire (not USB).
  • You cannot have the same projects and/or events on two mounted drives.  If so, FCP X will ignore one drive.
  • Projects/events must reside in the root of the drive (not within another folder).

It’s common practice (and quite logical) to store large amounts of video media and supporting edit files on external devices. It’s imperative that Apple address this issue in an update to FCPX. Until then, follow these tips to most successfully use external hard drives with Final Cut Pro X!

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  • http://YourSite(Optional) Winston

    The best practices are great. In addition to that, if your disks and projects disappear, identify any files (not FCP files) that we’re created since the disappearing act and relocate them to a drive that does not have FCPX projects on it.

  • http://donaldcherry.com Donald Cherry

    Got a MacBook Air I will be taking with me to do a video shoot away from home. No firewire ports, so can I use USB to capture/archive the video in the field?

  • http://www.smorelabs.com/ Becks

    Can you elaborate what you mean by “Projects/events must reside in the root of the drive (not within another folder)”. You mean there can’t be any folder in the drive and events and projects are just scattered in the drive? Or did you mean they have to be in the same folder?

    • Ryan

      When you create an event or project in FCPX it creates a FCP Events AND a FCP Projects folder on your hard drive. These have to be on the root level of the drive, meaning you cannot put them into another folder. FCPX will do the project and event management from within those folders.

  • http://www.harddrivedatarecover.co.uk/ Data Recovery Services

    I need little more spotlight because I am getting confused with the recent requirements.

  • Jonathan

    Somewhat following Winston’s advice, I had to create a folder called “other” to put any other folders on my external disk in.  Magic…

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